Contents

Pay replaced Major General Peter Grant Peterkin as Serjeant at Arms in 2008. She is a former civil servant who had previously worked as a business manager. She had worked in Parliament since 1994 when her title was Head Office Keeper. She was appointed Deputy Serjeant at Arms in 2004.[4] Before she assumed the role of Serjeant at Arms, the role was downgraded, something with which the Queen was said to be unhappy. The position is a crown appointment. Pay was not granted the traditional audience with the monarch.[5]

In 2008, Pay became embroiled in political controversy when it was revealed she was the official who had consented to a police search on Damian Green's Commons office.[2] There was some suggestion that Pay was made a scapegoat in order to protect the reputation of the then Commons Speaker Michael Martin.[4]